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Don’t Go Back to School, Instead Build a Personal Curriculum
September 29, 2025
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By Skylar Hunyadi
I’m the person who frequently asks myself, 'Should I go back to school?' I know it’s in my overachieving genes to turn to education for validation, but there’s a part of me that genuinely misses learning new things. While I love my career and hobbies, there’s always a bit of school nostalgia that creeps in this time of year.
To my surprise, the Internet found the perfect solution.
Enter: the personal curriculum.
This online trend is essentially a self-directed "syllabus" to explore a topic of personal interest, outside of formal education. It's inspired by the structure of academic courses, including elements such as readings, projects, and goals, but is entirely customized and self-paced. It’s giving a lite academia aesthetic and a dose of main character energy (in a good way). It's a way to stay intellectually engaged and build a routine around learning something new. Unlike many online trends, this one appears to have overall wholesome intentions. I’ve seen this trend credited to Elizabeth Jean (@xparmesanprincessx on TikTok) and popularized using the hashtag #curriculumclub.
This personal curriculum trend came into my life at the perfect time. This fall, my partner returned to college to study cybersecurity, and the jealousy was real when he came home talking about class assignments and topics he was excited to learn about. Coincidentally, a few of my friends’ partners are also back in school. One of these friends texted the group chat proposing we each do a “personal curriculum" this fall, in which we each study a subject and report back in December on what we’ve learned. To say I was inspired was an understatement. I immediately began planning.
How To Build A Personal Curriculum
Start by brainstorming 3 to 5 topics that interest you and then choose your primary focus(es).
Gather your course materials. Do you learn best through reading, podcasts, or YouTube videos? Make a master list of resources to refer to throughout your learning experience.
Set some seasonal goals to work toward. Ask yourself what you realistically want to learn by the end of the season, keeping in mind time constraints and skill/knowledge level.
Build your curriculum. Plan to engage with your resources on a weekly, daily, or monthly basis. This plan could be done on pen and paper, in your Notes app, in a Google Doc, or even on Canva if you want to get creative with it.
You get to decide how freeform or prescriptive your plan is!
For my subject, I chose Photography 101, but I’m calling it “Cozy Clicks” because it feels less school-like and more fun. I've had a camera for a long time, but I haven’t picked it up with the intention of learning its mechanics. I created a 12-week syllabus that explores the basics of photography, drawing on my existing knowledge of the subject and doing some general online research.
When making my “course plan,” I noticed a familiar sense of excitement, the same I would have in the first few weeks of a new semester. However, in this context, something glaringly absent was the pressure to achieve and perform optimally. The way I structured this personal curriculum was inherently low-stakes, focusing on the process rather than the outcome.
Here’s an overview of what I have planned:
My personal curriculum is a bit extra, but I work best in structure and with lots of detail. However, this learning approach is meant to be flexible: one friend is following a looser study plan, listening to one podcast a week on Mythology, and another is using a seasonal reading and documentary list to learn more about Astronomy. And the third in our trio plans to deep dive into specific poets, like Mary Oliver, over the course of the season. To give you a sense of variety, here are some other approaches I’ve come across:
As of right now, I plan to start my curriculum at the beginning of October. We have a group hang scheduled for the end of September to review everyone’s curriculum and set some accountability measures. If all goes as planned, I’ll check back in on my experience at the end of the year.
Final Thoughts & A Major Caveat
Like any trend, there’s always the risk of performativeness and added stress. With this one in particular, those of us prone to self-criticism might replace the external pressures of higher education with an internalized sense of responsibility to “succeed” at our personal curriculum. When I first sat down to plan mine, I literally said out loud to myself, 'This is for fun.' Because I know myself--I’ll start being hard on myself if I miss a week or fall short of an unrealistic goal. So, with that said, proceed with a light heart… you're not being graded!
Despite this risk, I’m really optimistic about this self-driven learning experience! From the content I’ve seen, the personal curriculum is helping people reclaim curiosity and build learning communities outside of traditional school settings. It’s about learning for learning’s sake--but in a more approachable way. Perfect for us recovering overachievers.
If you’re doing a personal curriculum, or something similar to it, I'd love to compare notes 😉 DM me on Instagram or Substack ⬇️
For more from Sky, join her on Substack! Subscribe here to receive her personal essays right to your inbox. Here's her latest post. This newsletter is a cozy corner of self care, reflections, and other small pleasures. All are welcome <3
Skylar is a licensed clinical mental health counselor who talks about self-care as the foundation of a prosperous life. She has a deep love for yoga, vegetarian cooking, and religiously organizing her Google calendar. Follow her on Instagram for more self-care and mental health content or on LinkedIn for the more ~professional~ stuff.
October 16th: Join us for The Art Of Being An Adult hosted by Chelsea! In this FREE workshop to celebrate her upcoming book, Having People Over, Chelsea will deep dive into many of the more underrated aspects of growing into yourself as a well-rounded adult. She’ll cover the basics you need to start hosting more regularly, the rules for creating a beautiful, personal, and functional home on a budget, how to create and live by a well-balance calendar, and more! You’ll also receive a free bonus workbook and exclusive content from the book. Register here.
November 12th: Wealth-building workshop alert! Join Chelsea along with Financial Planner and friend of TFD, Kellen Thayer, for How To Put Your Money To Work! This will be an info-packed 90-minute immersive workshop to learn the must-know wealth-building techniques for after you have covered the basics. Chelsea and Kellen will cover everything from the basics of real estate, mastering investments beyond the 401k, side income, entrepreneurship, and so much more! Click here to register!
I’ve been on a major financial improvement plan this year. I spoke about this a bit recently during an Instagram AMA last week, but I spent the past couple of years dealing with emotional/impulse spending that I’ve had to untangle throughout my postpartum journey. Even though I knew better, I was falling into some bad/avoidant money habits. Some of the things that have helped me untangle these habits over the past year are tried and true TFD recs:
Adding things to a cart then waiting 24-48 hours before purchasing (I often end up removing things from my cart, or they continue to sit in the saved for later section)
Automating my finances as much as possible to make sure no payments were missed on anything but also maintaining my investing and saving habits, even though I was overspending elsewhere
Tracking my spending (I switched to Monarch this year and it has been LIFE CHANGING for me. full stop.)
Setting up different bank accounts for different needs/goals — I have a checking account for my daily spending needs like food/groceries/public transit/etc, I have another account that I automatically transfer my portion of our monthly expenses into for things like rent/school for my son/utilities/internet/etc, I have a HYSA for my emergency fund, and a few others for some other specific savings goals like vacation, etc.
Switching gears here, I’m trying to extend the summer vibes, so here’s what I’m listening to/my most played songs on Spotify right now:
Anything from Colombian singer Beéle
Anoche by Danny Ocean
DODO by Tayc (this is a French afropop singer who I love, I can’t understand anything he’s saying, but I love it nonetheless)
When Did You Get Hot by Sabrina Carpenter
Renee Rapp - I Think I Like You Better
Solcito by Miguel Bueno
And of course, Olivia Dean’s The Man I Need
What I’m watching:
The new season of Great British Baking Show: This is one of my favorite fall rituals! Love getting cozy on the couch on Friday night after my son goes to sleep and watching with my husband.
Slow Horses on AppleTV: This show is in its 5th season but I just learned about it a week ago so I have a lot of catching up to do. It’s rare me and my husband find a show to watch together, but we’re both totally hooked.
Bon Appetit, Your Majesty on Netflix: As I’ve mentioned before, I love a good K drama. I haven’t watched one in months that I really got into, but this one is super swoonworthy and charming.
The Wrong Paris on Netflix: This is a supper fluffy lighthearted romcom with Miranda Cosgrove. I had very low expectations but it actually surprised me. A very sweet 90 minute watch.
While this section includes products and services from our paid partners, we only feature brands we genuinely like and use—and think you would, too.
FINANCIAL ADVISORY — Advisor.com: Dozens of people in the TFD community already trust and use Advisor! They’re one of the only financial advisory companies offering their services for a fixed, flat annual fee. Their team of advisors work for you, not commissions, and help you to achieve your financial goals through planning, investing, and more, no matter where you’re starting from.
INVESTING — Betterment: If you’ve been wanting to start investing but feel overwhelmed by where to begin, Betterment makes it super simple—even if you’re not a financial expert. With automated investing and goal-based planning tools, they’ll help you grow your money responsibly and sustainably over time. It’s a great option if you want to take control of your financial future without having to become a full-time market expert.
BUDGETING — Monarch: Our recommended Mint replacement! As we already shared in the main section of this newsletter, we highly recommend using Monarch to take the guesswork out of managing your money — use it to budget, set goals, and actually understand where your money’s going. Even better: there’s no ads, no selling your financial data to third parties, and no "premium only" upsells — just a clean, secure app that makes managing money feel way less overwhelming (and actually kinda fun?).
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